THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
The 2008 Olympics - The Battle of Beijing
The stage profile for the 245.4km Great Wall Olympic road course — which the elite men face on Saturday — looks like a comb placed on its end with seven sharp teeth pointing straight up. The section of the comb’s handle represents the flat 78.8 km tour of Beijing’s landmarks, including the Temple of Heaven, the Great Hall of the People, Tiananmen Square and the National Stadium.
The teeth represent the seven trips up the narrow Badaling Pass road, a 338-meter climb located alongside a section of China’s historic Great Wall. The climb lasts for 12.4 kilometers from start to finish, and course profiles list its average gradient at just four percent. That number is deceiving, however, as it factors in a slight descent near the top of the climb’s steep upper reaches. The sheer challenge posed by the 23.8km circuit, which is split between the Badaling climb and the descent, has many riders calling the Great Wall the toughest Olympic course ever.
“In the past 10 years at the Olympic Games and the world champs, there’s been nothing like this,” said Australian Michael Rogers. “It is a very strange course for cycling.”
A different kind of race
Indeed the Olympic road event has never been viewed as a “traditional” event by the world’s premier cyclists. Like the world championships, riders compete in national team squads, not their traditional trade teams. However in the world championships teams can field as many as nine riders. At the Olympics, even top teams are limited to five riders. Smaller teams will make controlling the race by any one nation’s riders nearly impossible. The Olympic road race often boils down to a battle of attrition or a sprint from a small breakaway group.
“No one is going to be able to control this race,” said American Levi Leipheimer. “All you can do is be aggressive, and if you feel good go for it.”
The one team many feel is strong enough to control the field is that of Spain, which has a roster packed with talent. Two-time Liège-Bastogne-Liège champ Alejandro Valverde heads up the strong squad, which also includes recently crowned Tour de France champ Carlos Sastre, 2007 Tour and 2008 Giro champ Alberto Contador, ’08 green jersey winner Oscar Freier and climbing sensation Samuel Sanchez. Valverde, Sastre, Contador and Sanchez all own climber’s legs strong enough to propel them up the mountain with the world's best. And Friere has the finishing speed to win a bunch sprint, should the seven ascents not prove to be selective enough.
But Leipheimer, the reigning U.S. champ, believes the presence of such a stacked team could work against the Spanish.
“Valverde is the number one favorite — it’s a perfect course for him with the uphill finish,” Leipheimer said. “But everybody knows it, so [the Spanish] are going to have a lot of enemies and a lot of responsibility in this race. If they’re going to put a rider in a breakaway, everyone is going to want to be there.”
With so much uphill, the world’s best climbers will be looking to stay with Valverde on the Badaling Pass ascent. Germany has five strong riders in Jens Voigt, Fabian Wegmann, Gerald Ciolek, Bart Grabsch and Stefan Schumacher. Reigning champ Paolo Bettini of Italy is expected to be in peak form for the race, as are Luxembourg’s three strongmen, Kim Kirchen and Frank and Andy Schleck. Another serious contender for the victory is Tour runner up Cadel Evans, who many thought would be a no-show in Beijing after injuring his knee at a post-Tour party.
“[The knee] felt fine after four laps,” Evans said after a warm up ride on Thursday. “It’s going to be seven on Saturday so it could be another story.”
The U.S. squad
Leipheimer is another rider many have pegged as strong enough to challenge Valverde for the win. Having missed July’s Tour de France, due to his Astana trade team’s exclusion by race organizers, the Californian has spent the summer preparing solely for Beijing. And he is backed by a cast of U.S. riders — George Hincapie, Jason McCartney, Dave Zabriskie and Christian Vande Velde.
Vande Velde, who just finished a best-ever fifth place at the Tour de France, said the climb isn’t as challenging as he expected. The Chicagoan also said that the tough course could lead to negative racing, as riders avoid the risk of playing their cards too early.
Vande Velde said Beijing’s soaring temperatures and high humidity will be a big factor.
“I haven’t been in a humid environment like this in a long time,” Vande Velde said. “I’m from Chicago but I don’t remember it ever being this bad. It’s nasty out there for sure.”
As riders spun reconnaissance laps on the course on Thursday afternoon, the surrounding hillsides were hidden by Beijing’s infamous “fog,” a blend of water vapor, industrial effluent and car exhaust. The density of the mist has fluctuated over the past week — some days see blue skies, while on others the entire city is socked in.
And if the air quality drops for Saturday’s race, it might be the quality of the skies — not the ramps of Badaling Pass — that decide who wins the gold medal.
But if blue skies prevail, the stunning scenery surrounding the circuit will make the Beijing road race one for the books.
“After seeing the Great Wall,” said Hincapie, “this is probably the coolest course I’ve ever done.”
Men’s Road Race
Start: Yongdinmen
Finish: Juyong Pass
Length: 245.4km
Start Time: 11:00 a.m. (11:00 p.m. Friday - Eastern time in the U.S.)
Race Notes
● Four riders have been scratched from the start list for Saturday’s men’s road race. Italian Damiano Cunego has decided not to race due to injuries suffered at this year’s Tour de France. The Italian was replaced by Vincenzo Nibaldi. Swiss rider Michael Albasini broke his left collarbone in a training crash on Tuesday and will also not ride. He will not be replaced. Vladimir Gusev of Russia has been removed due to abnormal values found during a team doping test. He will be replaced in the time trial by Denis Menchov. Portugal’s Sergio Paulinho has pulled out due to unnamed health problems. He has not been replaced.
